Satellite TV is becoming increasingly popular with consumers. Satellite TV requires an outdoor unit that has an antenna that must be precisely aligned to properly receive signals from the satellite. The integrated receiver/decoder or set-top box has a signal strength meter therein. The signal strength meter is used to measure the strength of the signal and therefore fine tuning of the alignment of the outdoor unit may be performed. The signal strength meter has a range of 0 to 100 that is proportional to the carrier-to-noise (C/N) signal measured by the demodulator/forward-error correction application specific integrated circuit in the IRD. Mapping of the output of the carrier-to-noise signal is not linear. The signal actually saturates at a value of 100 for a carrier-to-noise ratio of about 16 decibels. This is illustrated in FIG. 1. If the carrier-to-noise ratio is high, the installation technician may not know if the antenna is pointed in the optimal direction. The small difference of antenna pointing may drop the carrier-to-noise ratio by 1 to 2 decibels. However, if the signal strength is saturated, for example the carrier-to-noise ratio is 20 decibels, pointing changes could not be detected until the carrier-to-noise ratio drops well below 16 decibels. This means that the antenna will seem to be pointed properly when in fact it is pointed far from the optimal direction. Due to the antenna beam width and a high carrier-to-noise ratio the antenna may be mispointed in such conditions by 1 or 2 degrees, causing a degradation in the quality of services received. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for accurately pointing the antenna of an outdoor unit.